Kissimmee, FL – September 14 through 20

For my 50^th birthday, I wanted to go to Disney World and Epcot. I always thought Disney World was the Florida equivalent to Disneyland in California. However, the Disney World Resort encompasses many different Disney parks: Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park, Downtown Disney Area, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom Park.

We stayed for a week at the Great Oak RV Park in Kissimmee, FL. Mike lived in Orlando (McCoy Air Force Base) around 40 years ago. He says Kissimmee was a much different place back then. Now it’s very congested and touristy. The RV park was a little off the main drag though. Most of the park residents are snow birds. I think we were the only ones that were short-term residents. Our space was on grass, and since it rained almost every day, it was extremely soggy.

Our friend Mark Heal happened to be in town for business at the same time. We met on Tuesday for dinner and caught up on all the news over Italian food and drinks.

Thursday we went to the Magic Kingdom. It’s pretty much the same as Disneyland in California, but some of the rides were missing, as they are in other parks in the Disney World Resort. We were really surprised at how busy it was since it was sprinkling out, during the week, and late enough in the year that all the kids should be back in school. The Fastpass system is the only way to go.

 

Friday we went to Epcot. Epcot stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. The park is divided into two areas: Future World and World Showcase. Future World has rides and exhibits highlighting ideas and innovations. World Showcase consists of 11 pavilions highlighting the cultures, traditions, food, and entertainment of different countries. The countries highlighted are:

·        Canada

·        United Kingdom

·        France

·        Morocco

·        Japan

·        America

·        Italy

·        Germany

·        China

·        Norway

·        Mexico

Saturday, we went shopping for a new camera for my birthday. I got a Nikon Coolpix L840. It’s still more or less a point and shoot camera, but it has a 38x zoom. I also wanted something that could use regular AA batteries, as I’m really bad about having batteries charged when I need them.

We also looked at some houses in the Orlando area while we were there. We looked at some existing houses, but they were just as expensive as the new ones we saw, and they needed work. That doesn’t make sense to me.